School Dean Sends Out 'Tone Deaf' Dance Video

Hundreds of students seeking lower tuitions amid the coronavirus pandemic appear to be out of luck—and miffed at what they did get, the New York Post reports. Allyson Green, dean of New York University Tisch School of the Arts, answered their pleas by emailing them a video of her dancing to REM's "Losing My Religion." The video shows her sashaying, raising her arms, and reaching out to the camera as she lip-syncs the song. Green says in her email she has no power to refund any of their $58,000-a-year Tisch tuitions, NBC New York reports. She adds that the pandemic is costing NYU "millions more" as it maintains unused facilities while running online classes.

Students don't seem bowled over. "The video is not cute," writes Eli Yurman on a student-run blog. "It's uncomfortable to watch, it goes on for too long, you end it by staring at the camera for a good eight seconds, none of it is working in the way you think it's working." Others call it "embarrassing" and "tone deaf," NBC News reports. But Green defended herself to the Post, saying her dance "speaks to frustration and disappointment" and shows it's "still possible for the Tisch community to make art together." Meanwhile, an NYU Tisch petition seeking "partial tuition relief" has garnered over 3,500 signatures. (More coronavirus stories.)